Smith Heating & Air Conditioning

Disclaimer: I was employed by Smith Heating and Air years ago.
I had my feet in the HVAC business for 20 years: I worked for Skelton in Manteca, East Bay Air Conditioning in Concord, O&M Industries in Eureka, independently and for Smith.
Smith is owned and operated by the Smith family — Matthew Smith at the helm presently I believe.
Here is why I give Smith the highest rating:
When I was employed by Smith I can honestly say that their true aim was to do a good job from the onset of any job they approached.
By «good job» I mean: honest, reasonable amount of time, repair done right.
An example: I am new to Smith, learning the ropes, how they do things and tagging along with a seasoned Smith employee (this is service, repair work). We get called to a job, residential, AC is down. We determine the unit is low on freon. We locate a leak at the back of the evaporator coil. This was an old system. Let me stop here and explain something…
This is where many shops would try their best to sell the home owner a new system for thousands of dollars. They would tell the home owner their system was crap and not worth repairing. Yada yada.
Not Smith. We emptied the existing freon, removed the evaporator coil, pressurized it to get a clear knowledge of leak location, repaired leak, reinstalled evaporator coil, installed drier for contaminants, vacuumed system, added freon. 2.5 hours was the time taken and charged.
This is just one example of numerous in service.
In preventative maintenance: Trust me, many companies do little more than just «change filters». Not Smith. We were instructed and trained to clean both evaporator and condenser coils, check and change belts as needed, check and change contactors as needed, oil motors and much much more.
I felt compelled to give Smith this high rating because I saw first hand how their approach to the job and the customer is totally on the up and up. I have no vested interest, nor am I friends with Smith — though Matt is a nice guy. Just calling it as I see it as they are an asset to the community.

If you need repairs. run, just run. I called them on a Thursday as my refrigerator was acting up, and before it died, I wanted them to look at it. They said they would be out Friday before 11 am. Around 11 I called, and it was now before 4 pm, by 4 pm they still did not show up, and it was now Monday by 11 am. I explained I was worried my unit would die, however they still insisted on coming Monday. By Monday, unit was down, fortunately I removed most things from the unit so only lost a bit of supplies. Monday they finally showed up around 3 pm, and decided it was a switch that was faulty, unfortunately they just used said part which is normally stocked on the truck, so I had to wait while they went shopping, during which time I was still being billed in 15 min increments. They finally replaced the switch, and next day, unit was dead again, lost all of my supplies Called them, and they agreed to come out and look at it. Wednesday they finally showed up, and found the new switch they installed was faulty so the replacement would be at «no cost to me» Which should have been obvious, but even after mentioning the loss of product they made no move towards reimbursing me for their faulty work. Later they still sent me a bill for the second repair. They cleared that up, only to send me a bill again a month later, which was cleared up, to be sent a month later. To this day, my refrigerator runs continuously as the replaced switch is still faulty. They blame my unit, saying it is just old, however it worked prior to them, so someone was able to fix it. They are slow to service, quick to bill, they billed me not in 15 mins of the total time, but 15 mins on both sides of showing up and leaving, adding in almost 45 extra «travel» time to drive down the street in Stockton, plus the time for them to find the part. All in all I would avoid this company.